I just want to do a really quick post about the recent Twitter changes with regard to how @reply’s are shown in your timeline.

If you don’t know already, Twitter used to have an option in the settings area that allowed you to choose whether or not you could see reply’s of a particular user you were following that were replying to another user. In short, if you don’t know the person in an @reply from a user, their tweet with that reply would not show up in your timeline feed. You could, before the controversial change, opt to see them or not.

Now you cannot see them, and that is the default setting that cannot be changed by the user anymore. The reasons for this change, again in short, is to limit the API calls (relieve stress on Twitter’s servers) and because only 3% of users enabled the option to see @reply’s to people they did not know.

The problem is that now I cannot start ANY tweet with a user name, even if its not a reply, I am just starting my tweet with their user name. For instance:

Laura sucks at running.

I would write this on twitter as:

@limerasp sucks at running.

This is not a reply to her, rather a statement that begins with her Twitter user name. With the recent change to how Twitter handles @reply’s, any user who does not follow @limerasp, will not see my publicly intended tweet.

This has happened to me about 4 to 5 times recently, and I think that its something that needs to be changed. I don’t want to add ‘Well, ” before a publicly intended tweet that starts with a user name; but thats exactly what I’m being forced to do now.

I didn’t really mind the whole @reply change at first, but I’m starting to see that it puts Twitter at both a semantically and socially disadvantaged position. I can’t say exactly what I want to say, or at least I have to add words to my tweets that I otherwise would not include, and honestly, everyone should be able to see an @reply, even if the user isn’t following that particular user. The reason is it promotes the conversation. When I follow someone, I follow them not just because I like what they are saying, but because I like THEM as a person (in-so-far as I know them). I do want to see who they are talking to, because of what I will call the Transitive Follower theory.

It’s this: It is of high likelihood that a frequent conversation between an unknown user and a user who you follow that the unknown user is a worthy follow.

Simple. Kind ofa obvious, but needs to be said.

If you don’t want your stuff public, send a DM. That’s what they are there for.

After picking up a few more clients recently, I am getting bombarded with the same old questions, which I will list here.

Can I get a timeline on when the site will be finished?

No, you can’t.  It’s not that I don’t want to give you a specific time when the project will be finished, its just that too much of it depends on you (the client).  You need to sign my contract, give me content, feedback, reviews, and opinions.  The process of creating and implementing a website is a two party business.  Giving you a timeline is like saying, “Hey! I like that date, it makes a smiley face on my iCal if I make your entire project due here!”.  It’s that arbitrary.

I want to use the logo my wife made and have that as a basis for the whole site.

Sir, honestly, its drawn in pencil.  It lacks color, depth, and professionally.  Why do you even want a website?  Are you marketing your brand/self or just want to showcase your wife’s ability to use a #2?  Use it for a basis for the whole site?  No sir, no.  This is just a bad representation of yourself and your site.

So I want a website with a back end, custom design, and a year worth of dedicated hosting.  Can you do it for like $300?

I certainly can, but I won’t.  People STILL have no idea what it takes to deliver a fully functional, hosted, robust website.  Web developers put tremendous amount of time into the tiniest aspects of a website, so at first your misunderstanding of the value of this work is acceptable.  But to give me that sad-puppy-dog-face when I explain how I can’t do it for that amount is just heartbreaking.  I’m sorry already!  I really wish I could drop half of my serious clients and do your website for you in 2 days with a $300 dollar budget, but….I just can’t: it’s like throwing away the business!  Make me some kind of Indian god with 8 arms, then I will show you some awesomeness for $300, but that surgery would be quite expensive.

Can you make the content text something other than Georgia (or tahoma, verdana, arial, courier…)?

No, I cannot.  I already explained how these fonts are standardized amongst all browsers and OS’s.  No, I know you have heard of sIFR, but it is insane to apply it to the entire document. (I know I know, wait till CSS3 rolls out)

I would love it if you made a flash splash page before visitors got to the main site!

What, you mean like this?  No.  Bad design choice.

UPDATE:

So if you make me the website, can you also make me #1 on Google search results?

Sigh.  Ma’am, do you know how many websites there are?  Your business is called ‘Susane Boyle’s Cupcakes’.  Havn’t you seen her youtube video?  It’s been viewed 41,000,000 million times.  How. The. Hell. Am. I. Going. To. Compete. With. This?  (thanks @gayadesign)